To help organisations increase the efficiency of global supply chains, Oracle is introducing logistics capabilities to its Cloud SCM supply chain and manufacturing software.

The updates to the transportation and global trade management part of SCM should help optimise logistics operations by increasing visibility, reducing costs, automating regulatory compliance and improving decision-making.

Organisations are facing significant supply chain problems, from component shortages to disrupted shipping routes, changing global trade agreements, and volatile customer demand. To adapt their supply chains quickly to the changing global business environment, logistics professionals need agile and efficient processes that can help them navigate regulatory compliance, reduce the likelihood of trade bottlenecks, and mitigate the impact of on-going shipping disruptions.

“The last few years tested the resiliency of global logistics operations and many organisations have struggled to adapt and insulate their business from ongoing disruptions,” said Srini Rajagopal, vice president at Oracle. “With Oracle Cloud SCM, organisations can seamlessly manage transportation, global trade and distribution processes. This helps them improve the speed and accuracy of operations, optimise service levels, address compliance and mitigate the impact of supply-chain disruptions.”

The added capabilities include:

• Expanded business intelligence: Lets users combine transportation and trade data with other operational data in Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence. The augmented data help organisations improve decision-making and global logistics performance by providing a holistic, real-time view of the business.
• Enhanced logistics network modelling: Helps logistics managers model different scenarios and compare different scheduling options for drivers. The capabilities help organisations evaluate schedules, improve assignment decisions and optimise fleet performance.
• Trade incentive programme: Lets users automate support for multiple country-specific trade programmes simultaneously. Automating trade documentation helps organisations reduce manual processes, improve the accuracy and efficiency of trade programme participation, and reduce duty and tax costs.
• Updated transportation management mobile app: Support for third-party transportation service providers and fleet-managed drivers enables app users to bid on spot market shipments, capture shipment actuals and launch maps. The added functionality and configurability of the app help improve the efficiency of logistics operations by providing a more intuitive and personalised experience.
• Improved workbenches: Help logistics managers quickly and easily create configurable workbenches that provide a single view of operations. Workbench personalisation and data visualisation features help organisations increase productivity and improve business decisions.

“As a global business with offices in 143 countries and territories, we are continuously striving to improve visibility of global trade agreements and centrally manage cross-border business processes,” said Gisele Belotto from KPMG. “Using many of our own tools, as well as those of our alliance partners, we’ve been able to optimise our global trade processes and trade agreement qualification to increase efficiency, lower costs, improve controls and reduce risk across our operations.”

Satish Sharma from Apollo Tyres added: “With Oracle, we have been able to increase productivity and reduce time to process freight expenses significantly. Oracle transportation management has helped expand our supply-chain visibility and eliminated multiple rounds of audit checks and clerical work related to its freight settlement and auditing processes. The company has experienced a big jump in efficiency and reduced the number of errors.”

Oracle Cloud SCM (oracle.com/scm) helps organisations seamlessly connect supply-chain processes and quickly respond to changing demand, supply and market conditions.